Brogden offers bus fare cuts to elderly

Pensioners would receive an extra 25 per cent off fares on non-government buses under a $100 million subsidy plan unveiled yesterday by the NSW Opposition Leader, John Brogden.

Campaigning at The Entrance on the Central Coast, Mr Brogden said all pensioner concession and seniors card holders, who already pay half price, would pay just 25 per cent of full fares from October next year if the Coalition were elected to government.

Card holders living in Sydney pay $1.10 per day for unlimited travel on public transport.

The announcement was the first of the campaign directed at older voters, who strategists see as crucial to victory in a series of marginal seats in suburban Sydney and regional NSW.

Mr Brogden said the bus scheme was designed to ease the burden on seniors card holders. "Buses are these peoples' life line. It is not fair that those outside Sydney have to pay more," he said.

Mr Brogden said it would be impossible to extend public transport to growing regional centres. "The cost of buying the networks out and replacing them would just be prohibitive," he said. "The long term or medium term aim of a Liberal-National Coalition government would be to extend that flat $1.10 fee across the state."

Mr Brogden was accompanied by the deputy leader, Chris Hartcher, who holds the seat of Gosford by just 2.3 per cent.

He was also joined by the Liberal candidates for the Central Coast seats of Wyong, The Entrance and Peats - Ben Morton, Phil Walker and Debra Wales - which are all considered vital by Coalition strategists.

The announcement was made on a bus driven by Mr Morton, a 23-year-old local bus driver, and filled with elderly Liberal supporters.

People aged 65 and over make up more than 15 per cent of the population in 12 seats, including Tweed and Clarence - which the Nationals are confident of winning from the ALP - Gosford, the Entrance, Wyong, Bega and South Coast.

"These are a key demographic in the political process, and everybody knows this," Mr Hartcher said.

In January, the Coalition announced a $30 million plan to extend pensioner benefits to self-funded retirees, some of whom are expected to punish the Government for rising land taxes.

The bus subsidy would cost $27.8 million in 2004-05, rising to $42.1 million in 2006-07, a total of $100 million over four years.

According to Mr Hartcher, a Coalition government would pay for the two schemes by slashing the amount spent on government advertising.

"Labor is spending $104 million a year on advertising and that is mostly political," he said, claiming the Coalition would cut that figure to $30 or $40 million.

A spokesman for the Transport Minister, Carl Scully, said the promise could not be fulfilled as it was too expensive.

"They are spending money they just don't have," he said.

The chief executive of the National Seniors Association, David Deans, welcomed yesterday's announcement, and said he believed the move would win the Coalition votes from pensioners, many of whom live on just $11,000 a year. "It's these things that appear to be small that are so important to them," he said. "It actually allows people to get out and about."

Many older people living outside metropolitan centres were effectively isolated by the cost of private buses, and the campaign for concessions was one of the association's most important.

"That $1.10 flat fare in Sydney is famous around the whole country," he said.